Chelsea – Southampton (Premier League)
Chelsea and Southampton face each other this Tuesday, at Stamford Bridge (London). This is a match of Premier League´s 34th round. Chelsea arrive here after a away win against Bournemouth and a 2-0 away loss against Manchester United. Chelsea hold the 1st place in the Premier League table with 75 points, which comes from 24 victories, 3 draws and 5 defeats, with 65 goals scored and 27 goals conceded. The team has been presenting some irregular results, since in their last 5 official matches, in this competition, they have won 3 matches and lost the other two. This sequence of results started with a 1-2 away victory against Stoke City. This victory was followed by a 1-2 home loss against Crystal Palace, a 1-2 home win over Manchester City at Etihad Stadium, a 1-3 away win against Bournemouth, and in their last clash as mentioned before, a 2-0 away loss against Manchester United.
At home, so far, the team has played 15 matches: won 13 and lost 2, that is, they have been presenting really good results and making good use of the home advantage. Their offensive and defensive form have been very effective. In these 15 home matches they have 39 goals scored and 11 conceded.
After qualifying for the final of the FA Cup, Chelsea are back in the Premier League, where they have to win this match against Southampton to keep leading the English league with 4 points advantage over the 2nd place, Tottenham. With that, we can believe that Chelsea will present an offensive proposal, since they will be playing inside their stadium and have quality players to do so.
Both Gary Cahill and Willian are questionable players.
Probable Lineup: Courtois – Aké, Luiz and Azpilicueta – Alonso, Moses, Kanté and Fàbregas – Hazard, Pedro and Costa
Southampton arrive here after a 0-3 home loss against Manchester City. The team holds the 9th place in the Premier League table with 40 points, which comes from 11 victories, 7 draws and 13 defeats, with 37 goals scored and 40 goals conceded. The team has been presenting some irregular results, since in their last 5 official matches, in this competition, they have won 2 matches, drew 1 and lost the other two. This sequence of results started with a 2-1 away loss against Tottenham. This loss was followed by a 0-0 home draw against Bournemouth, a 3-1 home win over Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park, a 0-1 away win against West Bromwich, and in their last clash as mentioned before, a 0-3 home loss against Manchester City.
As a visitor in the Premier League so far, the team has played 16 matches: won 5, drew 3 and lost 8. They have been presenting mixed results, since their offensive and defensive form haven’t been very effective. In these 16 away matches they have 20 goals scored and 22 conceded.
Southampton will face a team of very high quality and theoretically superior, which in addition to being playing at home, have very talented players and fight for the Premier League title. We can believe that Southampton will suffer with the attack of Chelsea, that will probably drill their defensive sector and score some goals.
Alex McCarthy, Virgil van Dijk, Sam MacQueen, Matt Targett and Charlie Austin are out due to injury. Oriol Romeu returns to the team after suspension.
Probable Lineup: Forster – Soares, Stephens, Yoshida and Bertrand – Ward-Prowse, Davis and Romeu – Redmond, Boufal and Gabbiadini
Chelsea have won 11 of their last 12 home matches in the Premier League so far. In this way the most likely scenario for this match will be the team making home advantage count against their opponents. Both teams have a very offensive football, since they have scored consistently. This match will probably be full of intensity from start to finish.